Mark Hobley

These are my experiences as a left handed person encountering various products throughout stages of my life.

By Mark Hobley.

potato peeler - This was my first experience of a right handed product. After being shown how to peel a potato by my father in 1973, I discovered that the blade was on the wrong side of the peeler, so I could not pull the peeler towards me. The action of pushing the peeler away made this a very difficult task, and using the peeler in the opposite hand felt unnatural and even more awkward than the push action.

piano - When I first saw a piano in 1975, I reached out and pressed a couple of the notes. I quickly discovered that the notes were too deep and that the higher melodic notes were awkwardly placed on the right hand side of the keyboard.

My first watch - When I was given my first watch in 1976, after fitting it to my arm, I discovered that the winder next to the number three was pointing up my arm on the wrong side of the face making it extremely difficult to wind. Moving the watch to my left arm made the strap difficult to do up.